HMS Essette Blog

Release the Power of Block Snippets: Essette Correspondence

By Deb Mitchum, Clinical Solution Specialist

If you have ever configured letters in Essette, you are familiar with the snippet groups that are used to pull data into the letters (such as mail merge fields). If you haven’t yet become familiar with snippets, Essette would like to introduce you to some powerful functionality that Essette clients have been using in various creative ways.

Commonly-used snippet groups include Core Snippets (e.g. Current Date, Page Break), Member Snippets (e.g. Member Name, Member ID#) or Case Snippets (Assigned To, Program). However, you may have skipped right over the Block Snippet group. Recently, several clients have discovered the power of the Block Snippets – and have even taken them to the next level by creating their own block snippets within letters in Essette. The screen shot below shows where Block Snippets are “hidden” in the Essette Correspondence editor:

In simple terms, a Block Snippet is used to insert a block of text into a letter when a specified condition is met. If the condition is not met, the block of text is not inserted into the letter. For example, if the condition is that a member is male, Block Snippets can be used to automatically insert a block of text about men’s health. Block Snippets allow fine-tuning of letters so that each member receives content that is highly specific to their individual needs.

Block Snippets available in Essette are easy to use:

1. Select a condition under the Block Snippets dropdown (such as “Member is Female”)

3. Select the “End Block” snippet (in the dropdown list) at the end of the block text

The complete “block” will look like this within the Essette Correspondence editor…##Block.If(Member.GenderCode = ‘F’, ‘Member Is Female’)##Schedule your annual mammogram today!##Block.End##“Schedule your annual mammogram” will display in the letters to members who are female.**The online help pages within Essette provide step-by-step instructions for using the built-in block snippets.**

After getting the hang of these ready-made snippets, you may want to write your own Custom Snippets. All you need is some knowledge of the database naming scheme.

The basic structure of a Block Snippet is:
##Block.If(condition)##text##Block.End##

You can create a combination of conditions (e.g. “Member is Female” and “Member is over 50”) – or exclude certain conditions (“Member’s LOB is NOT Medicare”). See the online help pages within Essette for some helpful tips for getting started with custom snippets.

Please share your creative use of Block Snippets with the group below. The possibilities are endless!